AI tool predicts likelihood of IVF success

Life Whisperer uses the technology to improve the selection of embryos used in IVF implantation.

Australian fertility company Life Whisperer has partnered with a fertility clinic to test how its artificial intelligence (AI) product can impact IVF. Life Whisperer applies non-invasive AI-driven image analysis to improve the selection of viable embryos for IVF implantation. Using technology, statistics, and physics techniques, Life Whisperer identifies morphological features that constitute a healthy embryo. These often aren’t visible to the human eye.

Its collaboration with US-based laboratory Ovation Fertility found that AI might be a valuable tool to accurately detect genetic defects in human embryos. In this study, Life Whisperer’s technology was used to evaluate thousands of 2D static images of embryos created through past IVF cycles at Ovation Fertility IVF laboratories. When compared to standard embryo morphological grading by skilled embryologists, the AI technology showed a 50 percent improvement in the prediction of successful implantation. This is the critical first stage of a successful pregnancy. This was the first study in the US to successfully apply AI by deep learning through computer vision to embryo selection.

Using the Life Whisperer AI tool, clinicians dragged and dropped embryo images taken from a standard microscope camera. This results in an instant report of embryo viability. It also helps determine which embryos are good candidates for pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT) or are most likely to result in a successful pregnancy without PGT. Results of the AI analysis of the images were compared to corresponding chromosomal test results. Alternatively, they could also compare with pregnancy outcomes for each embryo, along with the morphological grade assigned by the embryologist. Life Whisperer plans to make its AI technology widely available in 2019.

The application of AI is seemingly endless, with a breadth of industries utilising the technology. AI has been used for everything from identifying extremist content online to rating the beauty of landscapes. How do you use AI on a day-to-day basis?